s the global pandemic hit the United States, food stores saw a huge increase in demand. Panic buying took over, goods were rationed, and shelves lay empty. Food banks across the country struggled to keep up with demand and issued their own warnings of having to ration. Yet at the same time, farmers were throwing away milk and fresh produce, as demand from restaurants and hotels vanished overnight.
In a few short days, COVID-19 brutally exposed the gaps in the United States’ food and farming system. The highly centralized system we see today has its roots in the ‘Great American Farm Revolution’ of the 1970s, when then Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, warned farmers to “get big or get out.” The decades that followed saw the prioritization of large-scale plantation-style farming over local, small-scale farms—highly centralized and highly vulnerable to a crisis like COVID-19.
The U.S. meat industry is a case in point. Approximately 50 plants account for as much as 98% of the slaughtering and processing of cattle for beef. Mega plants dominate the market, processing animals easily and cheaply. But these plants still rely on people to run their conveyor belts, and as the closure of the Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota showed, when one person gets sick, the whole plant soon has a problem.
While the drop in meat supply in the United States may be temporary, for many people around the world the legacy of COVID-19 is likely to be one of food shortages. Although we produce enough food to feed everyone, the United Nations is projecting 265 million people will be experiencing acute food insecurity by the end of the year. Post-pandemic, the solution to feeding the world is not just to produce more, but to produce better—and doing so requires investing in the infrastructure farmers need to get their products to market.
Globally, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates there are 500 million small-scale farmers. These are the people that produce the majority of the world’s food. Small-scale farmers tend to rotate crops more regularly and make investments in improving the health of the soil, delivering nutritious products in a way that protects the environment. But same as here in the United States, in much of the world, these farmers are limited to servicing local markets, because they do not have access to transport, finance, and other infrastructure needed to grow their businesses.
In the United States and around the world, Heifer International, supports local farmer cooperatives to provide the infrastructure farmers need to get their goods to markets. In Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, we have worked with dairy farmers to set up hubs, where dairy farmers can bring their milk for it to be checked, chilled, and sold directly to some of the continent’s biggest dairies. Selling through the hub benefits farmers, because they are guaranteed a certain income and the companies that buy their products know they can purchase a large amount of milk that has passed quality tests.
Investments like this are not only important in supporting farmers to boost their incomes, but they have a vital role to play in ensuring the food we eat is both nutritious and safe. Milk has to pass certain quality tests before it can be accepted, chilled, and sent on to the dairies. The same standards need to be in place for other food products—especially meat.
From what we know now, the COVID-19 outbreak started in a wet market in Wuhan, China. Wet markets are not unique to China and have long been criticized as breeding grounds for infectious diseases. As the global demand for meat continues to grow, the quality controls for how animals are slaughtered and processed need to improve with it. Nepal, for example, has strict laws for how meat should be processed, but not a single slaughterhouse in the country meets those standards. Today, small-scale meat processors across the United States are struggling to keep up with demand. The flexibility of smaller plants enables them to introduce new measures to protect workers, while still getting the job done. And if workers should fall sick and the plant is forced to close, the whole supply change will not crumble.
COVID-19 has shown us the value of the food we eat and the people that produce it. Doubling down on our highly centralized food and farming system would make us much more vulnerable when the next crisis hits. With two billion people relying on farming for their source of livelihood and all of us relying on it for our food, investing in farmer-focused infrastructure at the local level is the path to a stronger, more diversified, food system.
a global affairs media network
How to Fix the Gaps in Our Food System
May 14, 2020
A
s the global pandemic hit the United States, food stores saw a huge increase in demand. Panic buying took over, goods were rationed, and shelves lay empty. Food banks across the country struggled to keep up with demand and issued their own warnings of having to ration. Yet at the same time, farmers were throwing away milk and fresh produce, as demand from restaurants and hotels vanished overnight.
In a few short days, COVID-19 brutally exposed the gaps in the United States’ food and farming system. The highly centralized system we see today has its roots in the ‘Great American Farm Revolution’ of the 1970s, when then Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, warned farmers to “get big or get out.” The decades that followed saw the prioritization of large-scale plantation-style farming over local, small-scale farms—highly centralized and highly vulnerable to a crisis like COVID-19.
The U.S. meat industry is a case in point. Approximately 50 plants account for as much as 98% of the slaughtering and processing of cattle for beef. Mega plants dominate the market, processing animals easily and cheaply. But these plants still rely on people to run their conveyor belts, and as the closure of the Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota showed, when one person gets sick, the whole plant soon has a problem.
While the drop in meat supply in the United States may be temporary, for many people around the world the legacy of COVID-19 is likely to be one of food shortages. Although we produce enough food to feed everyone, the United Nations is projecting 265 million people will be experiencing acute food insecurity by the end of the year. Post-pandemic, the solution to feeding the world is not just to produce more, but to produce better—and doing so requires investing in the infrastructure farmers need to get their products to market.
Globally, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates there are 500 million small-scale farmers. These are the people that produce the majority of the world’s food. Small-scale farmers tend to rotate crops more regularly and make investments in improving the health of the soil, delivering nutritious products in a way that protects the environment. But same as here in the United States, in much of the world, these farmers are limited to servicing local markets, because they do not have access to transport, finance, and other infrastructure needed to grow their businesses.
In the United States and around the world, Heifer International, supports local farmer cooperatives to provide the infrastructure farmers need to get their goods to markets. In Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, we have worked with dairy farmers to set up hubs, where dairy farmers can bring their milk for it to be checked, chilled, and sold directly to some of the continent’s biggest dairies. Selling through the hub benefits farmers, because they are guaranteed a certain income and the companies that buy their products know they can purchase a large amount of milk that has passed quality tests.
Investments like this are not only important in supporting farmers to boost their incomes, but they have a vital role to play in ensuring the food we eat is both nutritious and safe. Milk has to pass certain quality tests before it can be accepted, chilled, and sent on to the dairies. The same standards need to be in place for other food products—especially meat.
From what we know now, the COVID-19 outbreak started in a wet market in Wuhan, China. Wet markets are not unique to China and have long been criticized as breeding grounds for infectious diseases. As the global demand for meat continues to grow, the quality controls for how animals are slaughtered and processed need to improve with it. Nepal, for example, has strict laws for how meat should be processed, but not a single slaughterhouse in the country meets those standards. Today, small-scale meat processors across the United States are struggling to keep up with demand. The flexibility of smaller plants enables them to introduce new measures to protect workers, while still getting the job done. And if workers should fall sick and the plant is forced to close, the whole supply change will not crumble.
COVID-19 has shown us the value of the food we eat and the people that produce it. Doubling down on our highly centralized food and farming system would make us much more vulnerable when the next crisis hits. With two billion people relying on farming for their source of livelihood and all of us relying on it for our food, investing in farmer-focused infrastructure at the local level is the path to a stronger, more diversified, food system.
